Judge E. B. Ritchie opened his first office in Palo Pinto County with Judge Albert Stevenson in Mineral Wells in 1899.  Ritchie, a native of Tennessee, married Anne Menefee in Lincoln County, Kentucky, the year before and they came to Texas soon afterward, living for a time north of Dallas before coming here.  In 1904 they moved to Palo Pinto and bought a home, which was located just south of the present location of the Methodist Church.  The house was built of oak lumber which was hauled from east Texas by ox team.  Both Judge and Mrs. Ritchie were members of the Palo Pinto Baptist Church, retaining their membership there until their deaths, Mr. Ritchie's in 1947 and Mrs. Ritchie's in 1956.

From 1904 to 1908 Ritchie was county judge and was state representative to the 33rd legislature from 1912 to 1914.  He was one of the organizers of the First National Bank in Mineral Wells and pioneered in the development of natural resources of the county, particularly in the oil and gas fields in the southwestern part of the county.

Survivors of the couple are a son, George M. Ritchie, attorney of Mineral Wells; a grandson, John P. Ritchie, an attorney living in Ft. Worth, and two great-grandchildren also of Ft. Worth.